Karen Grace said
Hey again John,

So yes I'm aware my squeeze page wasn't converting that well... No I didn't mention I got cheap subs so far- my email open rates were good- maybe that's what you were thinking of?

Ok, for some reason I thought I remember you initially saying you were getting subs for about $1.30. Must have been someone else.

I have changed my squeeze page up quite a lot. It was previously on the dark side, which fitted with my visual branding at the time, so I thought I'd try it. But now I've lightened it up a lot (which I know is what you recommend) and am using the best performing quotes from my ads. I've also changed the headline to mention the Amelie/ Juno thing, (which hasn't been tested in way yet). Would you mind having a look and letting me know what you think? (it's the soft version but I'm using the hard version for my ads.)

http://www.karengracemusic.net.....free-music

Ok, so feedback item by item...

I think the headline is missing a little bit of detail. It sort of blurts out a statement but doesn't attach it to anything.

For example I think something more like "Karen Grace's music rings out like a "sonic mash-up of the soundtracks to Amelie and Juno"... would at least be clearer. Otherwise you are just telling me to imagine something and I don't know why. Obviously I know why, but that kind of clear and direct instruction is very important with copywriting. Remember the "store clerk" analogy from the copywriting course....

I think the font in the body copy should be different (at least not bold) so that it creates a different section for the eyes.

I feel like a whole opening paragraph is missing from the body copy. Something a long the lines of "Karen Grace is a..."

The format I like is tell them who you are, tell them what you sound like, tell them what you are giving them, tell them what to do next. I feel like the "tell them who you are" paragraph is missing.

Otherwise it looks good.

I've also wondered whether people are seeing my squeeze page, and checking spotify/or youtube and finding the other Karen Grace. It's part of the reason why I wondered if using my music video on my squeeze page might be a good idea so people know who I am, without confusion. I'm not on spotify, btw.

It's possible, but my guess would be that, that won't become a real problem until they are in the funnel. I could be wrong of course.

Having said that, my USP / headline is now much more dialed in so maybe it will be less of an issue as the other KG is very hippy/meditationy and not very Amelie/Juno-esque at all. Before, when my quotes were all focussed more vaguely on my 'uniqueness' as an artist, perhaps there was more danger of that ?

Thank you.

Karen  

Hard to say about the impact of the other Karen Grace, but I think it will come in later. So maybe explaining that your music is not available on those sites and stressing your "indie" quality will help with that.

Hope that helps.

I think it's much better. There are a couple of minor things that I think could be improved.

The sub headline just kind of slams into the reader. A simple, "and for a limited time you can download..." or something that bridges the headline with the subheadline would make it read better to me.

I also think the second paragraph in the body copy could do a little more to really describe what the music is like and sell the experience I will have when listening to it. But I don't think it's all that problematic as is.

The overriding goal here is to express one big idea in your headline and then back it up with everything else on the page. In other words, your headline needs to be able to sell them all on it's own. Everything else just addressees their lingering resistance. 

To my mind, that looks great! Good luck 🙂

I see. To my mind "Craving refreshingly different, folk-tinged songs from a unique new singer-songwriter ?"  is far too long for a headline. It will get cut off by many views.

I would be more inclined to use something short like "Craving Something Different?" so long as it supported the main text. That said, in all my years of doing this I have never tested anything that long so who knows. 

A few years ago you were limited on how much text you could have in a headline or body of an ad for display optimization. They have changed the rule, but the characters still get cut off depending on the view (mobile, partner sites, Instagram, etc). In some instances the headline doesn't display at all, so it's not that crucial of an element compared to body copy and images. 

My general attitude with headlines is to use something short that either speaks to a different trigger (IE, I used curiosity in the ad body so I'll use benefit in the headline), or I create something that just more succinctly supports the body copy. What you have is more of a body copy alternative than a headline. At least to my mind.

Karen Grace said
Hi John,

Thanks for the above reply.

My ads have been running again for about 30 hours. I'm slightly concerned as my squeeze pages still aren't converting very well at all.   Eg my Regina Spektor ads have 50 landing page views so far and only 4 subs.

I won't turn off the ads until tomorrow- gonna sleep on this, but it does seem wise to me to switch everything off and reflect on what's going on ? I know it's early days but it seems the same trend as last time with poor squeeze page conversion.

30 hours is too short of a time frame to really know much of anything. But certainly it is a concern. Did you run multiple ad sets to multiple audiences? It is really important to do that. Just as an example, I am in the early days on a campaign for a female singer songwriter right now and I ran three ad sets. Subscribers ranged from just over $2 all the way up to $12. Everything else was the same but two audiences converted terribly, and one looks like it should become a winner with a little refinement. And even that $2 ad set started off terribly. After about 15 hours I had zero subs and when they first started coming in I was over $5. Now the squeeze page is converting around 30%. All it took was a bit of time. Having said that, I can understand the urge to stop the bleeding. Just as often they don't improve.

I'm doing traffic ads, so I'm aware the squeeze conversion will improve once I finally go for conversions, but I can't imagine it will rescue these low numbers very much!

Here are my thoughts on the squeeze page (using the Regina one as an example:)

http://www.karengracemusic.net.....ee-music-r

- is there too much disconnect between the ad image (attached) and the squeeze pages imagery? D'you remember we talked about this?  the winning ad image was the back of me in the sea, so I chose not to use that image for my squeeze page ... 

I personally don't think so. This works for me.

- This headline: ‘Karen Grace’s songs evoke the playful intelligence of Regina Spektor alongside the charm of the Amelie soundtrack.’ Click to listen.  

... is the most popular by far, so far (21 landing page views) but no subs at all, so I'm wondering whether this scenario is similar to the curiosity subject line thing you mentioned with emails in the copywriting course where people click out of curiosity, but then feel annoyed perhaps because the headline isn't backed up with a source of who said it, and it throws up resistance...

I'm going to sleep on this, but I'm wondering how I can possibly dial things in better, with the squeeze page. I can definitely play with various different images, and perhaps go with text (ad and squeeze headline) that allude more to the qualities I know Regina Spektor fans will like (intelligent songwriting etc) without mentioning her name, to deal with possible curiosity followed by resistance...?

But I can't quite imagine how experimenting with the above will give me the big hike in conversion rates that I need to get to around 25%. Have you seen people make small changes with massive effects?

I have absolutely seen small changes have massive effects. But usually those are changes in the headline, the image, or the targeting.

I'm also wondering as ever whether people are looking up Karen Grace on spotify, finding the other one and getting confused. I've wondered whether I even mention at the bottom of my squeeze page that I'm not on streaming services but there is another Karen Grace who is. But it seems like quite an awkward move to do that!

Any thoughts are welcome.

It's hard to say, but my personal feeling is that it's likely the targeting. The next thought is that maybe the people that are clicking are not the types likely to subscribe for whatever reason. It is possible that changing the objective could have a massive impact. I do often see what a huge difference a few subscribers can make when your objective is conversions. An ad can go from struggling to successful. But of course it means spending at least $10 a day (usually) which may not be ideal for you. Time is the next consideration.

If you were a client I would start by spending $10/day (minimum) on three ad sets using dynamic creative. I would target one artist in each ad set and exclude the other artists from each ad so there was no overlap. Then I would run a conversion-based campaign and I would watch for at least 48 hours. I'd be surprised if something wasn't bringing in subs for under $4. Then I'd turn off the losers and raise the budget on the winner, and collect data for a couple more days. Then I would pause the campaign and create a new one using only the best elements from the previous campaign. For this one I would not use dynamic creative. I would let that run for at least 3 days unless results were unthinkably dismal (which would be unlikely given the testing already done). I would expect prices to be at least cut in half. If they were I would let it run. If links were cheap but subs were still too expensive I would start testing the squeeze page. If clicks were too expensive I would create a new dynamic creative campaign and test new variables against the best performing ones. If everything was out of whack I would start over with three new target audiences.

That's kind of my process and it's rally never failed. Sometimes it takes many rounds, usually just a couple. Using traffic campaigns often takes longer, but there is less risk because you can run with a lower budget.

I personally don't think your squeeze page is the big issue. Could be that different headlines might work better. But I think it is generally a good looking page that should convert. But if you change the targeting you obviously have to change the headline since this one is so Regina heavy.

Hi Karen,

Steve here from support.  John is traveling, so I wanted to get back to you in his absence.

That's great feedback to get from a customer.  You should follow-up with him and see if he'll allow you to attribute a quote that you can use on your sales page, as a testimonial.  The part about struggling to connect with new music is powerful.

Keep us in the loop on how you're making out.